Document type : Article of the Rencontres Recherche Ruminants
Author : F. Jourdan
Summary : The 19th century saw a general shift towards kindness in social practice which also included animal protection: the construction of the first slaughterhouses on the outskirts of cities, the banning of "mass killings", and the appearance of the first animal protection organisations and legislative measures. A century later, this "humanisation" of slaughter was ongoing: improved stunning techniques were developed, becoming widespread in the second half of the 20th century, along with the gradual industrialisation of slaughterhouses. This process of that made slaughter both invisible and less harsh invisibilisation and softening of slaughter led to the cultural erasure of the death of farm animals. Despite this, debates on the issue have not disappeared. On the contrary, they have grown and positions have hardened since the 2000s, which saw a rise in the influence of animalist movements. Based on a survey in a dozen slaughterhouses and on 58 interviews conducted with stakeholders in the meat industry, we suggest that the growing interest in animal welfare is part of a process of suppression of the death of farm animals. On the one hand, this is leading to the closure of slaughterhouses while, on the other, it has brought an "intensification" of stunning techniques, to the point of turning some forms of stunning into an instrument of slaughter. These consequences lead to a final discussion of this phenomenon of secular obliteration framed by the concept of anomia.
